


A Crutch

by Xazz



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-25
Updated: 2016-07-25
Packaged: 2018-07-26 14:33:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,273
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7577866
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Xazz/pseuds/Xazz
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There used to be a time when Jack wouldn’t be caught dead in a hat. Now he only wears one that belongs to a dead man.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Crutch

**Author's Note:**

> I tripped and fell into a new fandom and I can't get up.
> 
> Fill for [this prompt](https://overwatch-kink.dreamwidth.org/679.html?thread=372647) over on the kink meme

This had been a mistake. Soldier 76 shouldn’t have gotten close. Soldier 76 didn’t make mistakes. Jack Morrison made mistakes but not Soldier 76 and unfortunately today he was a bit more Jack Morrison than he should have been Soldier 76. He should have stayed back when the reformed Overwatch had shown up to assist Helix security, let it all happen. He’d catch up with Talon some other day. And yet he’d run in there, guns blazing.

Damnit Jack, you weak, old, fool.

Now the fight was over and Talon had retreated to lick their wounds and regroup for their next raid. Where Soldier 76 had no idea but he’d find them. He always found them eventually.

Soldier 76 had gotten a bit ambitious though. Overextended a bit too much and had to submit to real healing. Not his patch up beacon like normal. He hadn't wanted to but there was no helping it when the doctor had ordered it and he didn’t feel like fighting his way out of the group.

Being so close to Angela again after so long, lying right to her face by act of existing, was almost too much to bare for him. He avoided eye contact, which was silly because she couldn’t see past his visor. Overwatch agents talked with Helix guards about the state of their security and what their plans were for any potential future attacks. Ana’s little girl was there, talking to Winston. Head of Security. Ana would have been proud. Sad, but proud.

He'd heard the agents talking with the security guards as Angela healed Soldier 76 of his wounds with careful and delicate hands. There was some joking between them and he heard someone make a passing comment about him.

“You'd think for a guy who can take such a beating he'd wear a helmet or something.”

Soldier 76 turned his head and looked at them with him impassive visor, brows drawn close. Under the visor glare they positively wilted and looked away awkwardly.

“Leave it alone,” Fareeha said dismissively. “If he gets himself killed by not wearing a helmet is none of our business.”

“Yes ma’am,” they mumbled and moved away.

Once Angela was finished with him Soldier 76 got up, grabbed his gun, and left. He offered only the briefest thanks before making himself scarce. Jack could barely stand to be there another moment. If he did he’d really go crazy and not this half baked joke he was now. Soldier 76 made sure no one followed him on his way back to his hideout. It was just a hole in the wall with a bed, a desk, his baggage, and an Internet connection. All he needed to continue his work as he tracked Talon down.

Jack took the visor off and stowed it in a case. He put his gun down, he'd clean it later, and took off his gear to go bathe. He felt a lot older than he felt this morning when he stepped out of the shower. He shouldn't have stayed when those Overwatch agents had shown up. He should have just left, or watched from afar.

He laid out on the bed in just his boxers and grabbed at his bag, pulling it closer to the bed so he could reach into it. He had to dig to almost the very bottom to find what he was looking for. That had been by design of course. He didn't want to make it easy on himself. Soldier 76 couldn't afford weakness and Jack was nothing but a barely healed wound. He didn’t need to go around constantly pulling at the stitches.

Seeing his old friends, his old family, had hurt more than he'd expected. At least for a little bit Jack needed to be weak.

There used to be a time when Jack wouldn’t be caught dead in a hat. Hat hair, made him sweat like no tomorrow, and he never found one that fit his face. He accepted military helmets only because they were forced upon them and because he didn’t like being shot in the skull but always grumbled about the way they matted his hair down and made him feel sweaty and gross. 

Ana and Gabriel would tease him relentlessly about it. Ana’s hair was never anything but perfect though. Long and clean and luxurious under her cap and was never pushed flat even when she pulled it back to keep it out of her face. Gabriel was never without. Jack was sure Gabriel’s beanie wasn’t a hat and was just a part of his head. That had been when he could joke with his friend, before Blackwatch.

Everything had changed with Blackwatch, for all of them, and especially for Jack and Gabriel.

He pulled a sealed plastic bag from his baggage. Maybe it was sort of creepy but he'd since gotten over that. Inside was a knit beanie, black and without designs on it. He ran his fingers across it a few times before pulling it on. He was going to have terrible hat hair from this but he didn't care.

It still smelled like Gabriel.

There had been a lot unsaid. Between them. Gabriel had been his senior officer for years, even if eventually Jack was picked to command Overwatch instead of him. He'd always looked up to him for just his ability to get shit done and command respect from anyone and everyone who saw him. He'd admired him always and they'd been best friends. Maybe a little closer than that. Or at least Jack would have liked them to be. He'd been too uncertain to tell Gabriel how he felt and then they'd been promoted. Commander of Overwatch for Jack while Gabriel had been made the leader of Blackwatch and a chasm had opened between them. Jack hadn't been able to tell Gabriel after that. It would have felt like a fraud.

Then the HQ had blown up and Gabriel was gone. In an instant Jack’s friend was gone. Him and the rest of Overwatch. The rest of Jack’s friends. The rest of Jack’s family.

When Jack had crawled out of the wreckage all he'd been able to find of Gabriel was his beanie. Now he kept it with him as the last thing. The last crutch. He wished he'd said something before he'd been promoted. Or even after. Now he never had the chance to tell Gabriel. It was all unsaid now and he wouldn't get another chance.

Jack laid there long enough for the sky to darken. He didn’t rouse himself because what was the point really? Everyone was gone. Everything was gone. Except him. He was still here.

Soldier 76 perked up when he heard a woman’s voice outside his window. ‘Go away’ he heard her say. Soldier 76 lifted his head and peered outside, eyes narrowing. He saw a pair of tourists following an Egyptian girl and she did not look happy about it. He really wished they were past this shit. Humans were nothing if not stubborn though and Soldier 76 was the most stubborn there was.

He put the hat away, carefully sealing it back in its bag, and ran his fingers through Jack’s hair. It was pressed down in the shape of the beanie and damp. He tucked the bag into his baggage, all the way at the bottom and Soldier 76 pulled on his clothes, donned his visor, and went out the window. Jack was a sentimental old fool and he was going to get himself killed with this sort of shit. At least Soldier 76 could still do his work. 

**Author's Note:**

> kudos are cool but comments pay the bills, kids


End file.
